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User: MoarSauce123

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Comments · 1,235

  1. Re:Problem is, most places on While More People Switch To Streaming TV, Cable Stocks are Plummetting (investors.com) · · Score: 1

    Common issue in the US, which is why dialup is still widely popular. Rather sad for a country that wants to take leadership in essentially all areas. I suggest you write to your local politicians and chambers of commerce. With broadband the opportunities for people to stay put and work remotely are significant. When you move away so that you can have essential services it will remove voters, local consumers, and cost the town more money for other services such as water and sewer (if you happen to have those in the first place). Another sad story that many still have wells and the megapolluters called septic tanks.

  2. Re:Problem is, most places on While More People Switch To Streaming TV, Cable Stocks are Plummetting (investors.com) · · Score: 1

    Yep, acquiring and setting up customers is expensive. I suggest you tell Comcast what your plan is and ask for the promotional rate to be locked in for a two year commitment. If Comcast has any business sense they will agree to that. Or if you are OK with what you pay right now for Comcast service make that your offer. I do that with Verizon. I lock in current price and service package for 2 years. So far they always accepted that plus a few bucks increase.

  3. Re:BullSh!t Flag waived on While More People Switch To Streaming TV, Cable Stocks are Plummetting (investors.com) · · Score: 1

    Because the companies do not offer a service fast enough that is appealing to consumers. I have no problem with Verizon's FiOS service, especially since they offer symmetric Internet access unlike Comcast. That is a big deal when your kids run their own Minecraft servers. I also have no objections to locking in a two year contract (or even longer) at a fixed price.....as long as it doesn't clock in at the same cost as my mortgage. First service I'd cut is VoIP. Google Voice or even the granddaddy of VoIP MagicJack are far cheaper. Cable cutting is an option, but most of the TV streaming providers do not carry local channels. So you need to screw around with rabbit ears or stick an omnidirectional antenna on your house...back to the '30s I guess.

  4. Re:BullSh!t Flag waived on While More People Switch To Streaming TV, Cable Stocks are Plummetting (investors.com) · · Score: 1

    Every country deserves the government it has. Your fault for voting a cheeto and other big business shills into office.

  5. Maye in the TV subscription market. Most if not all already diversified with business and cloud services.

  6. Re: Not fast enough. on While More People Switch To Streaming TV, Cable Stocks are Plummetting (investors.com) · · Score: 1

    Folks...what the frack does this have to do with cable TV cost? Aside from interstate regulations telco infrastructure and access is regulated at the state and municipal level.

  7. Re: Not fast enough. on While More People Switch To Streaming TV, Cable Stocks are Plummetting (investors.com) · · Score: 1

    The reason why there is little to no competition is that by current law in most municipalities licenses for cable TV and phone are only allowed to be awarded to one company. In some places fiber is even considered a separate service. This is why places like Albany, NY (a state capital!) has zero consumer fiber service. Political cronyism and effective lobbyism (and most likely recurring payments to politicians) make it so that Verizon FiOS is ending at city limits. If there are artificially created monopolies then it is no wonder that there is no competition.

  8. Re: Not fast enough. on While More People Switch To Streaming TV, Cable Stocks are Plummetting (investors.com) · · Score: 1

    Fancy neighborhood you live in.

  9. Re: Not fast enough. on While More People Switch To Streaming TV, Cable Stocks are Plummetting (investors.com) · · Score: 1

    The how come the many ISPs in Europe can offer better services for a fraction of the cost in the US? They often do not even have TV as a service in their portfolio. The cable to home is a one time cost and comparably low given that telco infrastructure is installed essentially the same way as for the past 150 years: string wires from pole to pole. Very error prone, but also dirt cheap. Cabling is the same cost for TV as well. If cabling is the cost driver, then wireless operators should be able to offer services that are much less expensive, but they don't. Communications are now as essential as power and water, they should fall under the exact same pricing regulations. Or, merge the last mile infrastructure into a public non-profit and allow for municipal fiber, which will give equal access to any service provider. That is the only way to foster competition. Currently, the barrier to entry is far too high because competitors either need to buy access to last mile infrastructure or build their own. That's why in most places you have the choice between one cable company and one traditional phone company. One other option is to provide satellite TV service where access for consumers is at no cost. Operating cost is covered by content providers. This is what Europe enjoys with Astra and Eutelsat. Many SAT TV house installations in Europe also use far better material compared to the garbage that Dish and others push on their customers (this is a dish worth installing: https://www.kathrein.de/en/sat... know that such a constellation is highly unlikely. The US businesses just don't get that profits can be made without robbing the consumers.

  10. Cost on The Smartphone Sales Slowdown is Real (axios.com) · · Score: 1

    Cost is a factor, less so for the devices, but more so for the service. Especially in the US prices for cell service are obnoxiously high for rather spotty coverage. That means that those who have one won't buy a new one every year and those who do not have a smartphone won't buy one, even if they could afford a device, they will shy away from the high monthly prices. Cost aside, for some there are not many use cases that make such investments reasonable. Landlines and wired Internet are not only cheaper, they have far superior speeds and voice quality.

  11. Apple needs to make iPhones last longer... on Apple Has a New iPhone Recycling Robot Named 'Daisy' (techcrunch.com) · · Score: 1

    ....then they would not need robots with cutesy names. Best would be to make iPhones modular and sell individual parts. They can call it "Meccano".

  12. Maybe it has a unique set of circuitry that robocalls all single women on Sugermountain's behalf. After all, that is what FB was invented for.

  13. This is why health care must be a non-profit business. As soon as it is about maximizing profits the goal is to keep folks from dying, but sick enough to require permanent medical care. This report also shows that financial megacorps like GS have ZERO ethics. That they even bother with such a report is utterly disgusting.

  14. Re:Hey USians! on The Long, Slow Demise of Credit Card Signatures Starts Today (cnet.com) · · Score: 1

    I am still waiting for a large number of merchants got get chip readers ...yea, chip only, not chip and pin. Makes the chip only marginally more difficult to intercept. If the chip reader rollout is any indication, the no signature rollout will take until 2178....still 10 years before the new airport in Berlin opens.

  15. Trump has no plan on Trump Proposes Rejoining Trans-Pacific Partnership (nytimes.com) · · Score: 1

    I bet he heard on Fox News that someone said TPP had benefits and swoosh...one tweet later this is the new policy. It is utterly frustrating that a nation like the US votes such a dimbulb into the WH and then fails to get him out.

  16. Re:"Louder volume"?! on 'High Definition Vinyl' Is Coming As Early As Next Year (pitchfork.com) · · Score: 2

    I have several CDs that degraded on their own due to cheap manufacturing processes. I also had several that with a tiny scratch became unplayable. A vinyl record would have produced a pop and then continued on. It also depends on the type of music. With punk, grunge, and heavy metal the wear factor is negligible.

  17. Stop buying Apple crap!

  18. Make it easier to set up on Microsoft Touts Breakthrough In Making Chatbots More Conversational (windowscentral.com) · · Score: 1

    Last time I checked you needed multiple masters and a staff of 20 coders to get a chatbot going in Microsoft. If they want to make it mainstream it should require only a single button click to create a new bot, and a simple UI to edit the responses to key words. Build that before getting all fancy!

  19. Re:Public schools are what keep people dumb on Ajit Pai Faces Heat Over Proposal To Take Away Poor People's Broadband Plans (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1, Interesting

    There is an alternative: homeschooling. Regulations are fairly lax, but still reasonable in most states. A lot of paperwork in NY and total insanity in PA. Some states even reimburse for homeschooling and offer the books for free. Especially in rural regions it is cheaper that way than bus students for hours to a school. Of course, if the parents already work full time jobs and a few side jobs just to get by then this isn't really an alternative.

  20. In all fairness, it is not just Trump. Many administrations before intentionally kept people dumb enough to not ask any tough questions, but smart enough to be off welfare and happy with baseball and a six pack.

  21. Or hire more people... on South Korea To Shut Off Computers Past 19:00 Hours To Stop People Working Late (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    ....and change the cultural view that in order to be respected and have job security you need to bend over backwards.

  22. Actually, he is not moving forward like he said. He asks billions from US tax payers despite multiple times promising that he will make Mexico pay for it. He also promised in his self-dictated "Contract with America" to get this project going in the first 100 days. Other than some ugly prototypes nothing got done. Worse even, this project totally misses the point. The majority of illegal immigration occurs via official border crossings. Building a wall will also destroy the livelihood of thousands of US farmers who will lose their farm land along the border because the wall cannot be built in flood planes and sanctuaries. This is what happens when an utterly clueless guy calls the shots and spends over 25% of his time in office on golf courses costing the tax payers over a million for each trip.

  23. We also lost many blacksmiths on Trump Announces $60 Billion Tariff on Chinese High-Tech and Other Goods (techcrunch.com) · · Score: 1

    How dare we let times change! We need to get the jobs back to the conservative leaning blacksmiths and carriage makers! Let's slap tariffs on all cars, planes, buses, trucks, ships, canal barges, helicopters, train engines, and anything else not drawn by horse or mule! Oh wait, what about all the Republican boilermakers who lost their jobs when steam locomotives fell out of fashion? OK, no tariffs on steam locomotives, which will also bring back millions of coal mine jobs and employ billions in steel workers for new rails. Oh, wait, what about all the Diesel engine makers? OK, no tariffs on Diesel engines so that trillions of ultraright Diesel engine mechanics get their jobs back! Oh, wait..... And here we thought Reagonomics was the dumbest idea ever!

  24. Yes, less fads on Ask Slashdot: Were Developments In Technology More Exciting 30 Years Ago? · · Score: 1

    There are too many fads and companies aping each other these days. Someone puts a notch in the screen, now all do it. Someone invents "material design" defying 50 years of usability research and it becomes the latest and greatest. It is a sad time in technology when eliminating features is celebrated like a huge accomplishment.

  25. Folks need a study for this? on Air Pollution is Bad For Productivity, Even in Office Jobs (qz.com) · · Score: 1

    Dirty air is bad! We know that since 150 years....although there are plenty of deniers to that fact in the federal government. I guess that rule does not apply to exclusive golf courses.